Tales of Berseria is the best Tales game in a while. Its story, while a bit too slow paced in its first 20-30 hours, is a solid tale of revenge. It breaks away from the more traditional good versus evil yarn that Tales usually aims for, instead telling a darker tale with more Human characters at its core.
I love the setting, the characters and the premise of playing a happy-go-lucky superhero with gravity shifting abilities. Kat is the cutest, most likeable protagonist you’re likely to come across all year. When the game is in full flow, either during its awesome comic book style cutscenes or during its large scale combat, it’s superb. Unfortunately the game is far too comfortable simply forcing players through lazy content. A sizeable chunk of the gameplay isn’t actually all that fun to play.
In motion when two players are facing off against each other it’s brilliant. Playing the game is nonstop fun. Heck, even watching two players have at it is a cracking time.
Flinthook sucks you in until you look at your clock and realise it’s 2AM and you’ve been playing far longer than you thought.
[Endless Space 2] builds off the strengths of the 4X genre and what went right the last time, adding enough of its own flavour to gameplay to make it stand out and create an addictive, thoughtful science-fiction adventure.
Crawl is a fairly decent dungeon crawler that’s made a hell of a lot better when played with friends. It suffers from some slightly imprecise controls and an art style that, while great to look at, can make for a confusing cacophony of chaos that can lead to player death. It’s also a riot to play with some friends, with some of the best multiplayer gaming I’ve played so far this year. The only downside to that is that there isn’t any online options.
Cosmic Star Heroine is a fine RPG. What could have been a nostalgic throwback to the golden age of RPG’s is instead a thoughtful and well designed modern take on classic titles.
Everything comes together to create a really great stealth gameplay experience.
As you might expect, sniping is the most entertaining way to play the game, whether you’re pulling off a tricky shot, executing a plan to perfection or scoring a troublingly satisfying X-Ray killcam (and seeing a Nazi’s testicles explode in slow motion). Though the game also deserves praise for the huge number of alternative options at your disposal, which plays into the excellent level design that does a great job letting you put these options to use.
Horizon: Zero Dawn is an excellent robot hunting game. When you’re in the thick of fighting one of its fantastic robotic opponents it feels like one of the best games you’ve played all year.
The Sexy Brutale is a fantastic adventure game. Its core time looping mechanic works in every way imaginable. Figuring out how to save the wonderfully eccentric party guests from the equally as wonderfully eccentric staff is brilliant.
Everything is a game that won’t be for everyone. It probably won’t be for most people. At the same time I’d urge everyone to give it a go.
Detention is a great horror game, single-handedly redeeming the lack of quality in the genre’s most recent years. It trades in cheap scare tactics to instead create an unsettling and incredibly effective atmosphere of terror. You’ll dread going through each and every door in Detention, but be compelled to do so anyway thanks to a compelling main story and excellent world building.
Gary reviews Square Enix & Platinum Games’ third-person action game Nier: Automata [VIDEO DISCUSSION].